The Legacy of the Special Air Service in Dhofar 1970-1976: When the Iron Fist was in the Velvet Glove

Thesis

Between July 1970 and September 1976, the elite 22 Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) secretly deployed to the Southern Province of Dhofar in the Sultanate of Oman under the codename Operation Storm. Working under the nom de guerre ‘British Army Training Team’ (BATT), successive SAS squadrons supported a broader coalition of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) to defeat the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Gulf (PFLOAG). Additional to combat operations against a formidable insurgency, SAS sub-units dispensed medical and veterinary care, handled information operations, and organised the ‘Firqat’ fighting force. The war was officially declared a victory for the Sultanate on 11 December 1975.

There remains no principal monograph study of the SAS in Dhofar even though it is routinely described in secondary source material, often written by veterans themselves, as a ‘model campaign’ and lauded as ‘the most important and far-reaching [campaign] ever fought by the SAS’. However, the post-war character of the secretive SAS unit has remained concealed from the historical record and rigour of academic debate. The proliferation of veterans’ memoirs and the unit’s rigid posture not to confirm nor deny its activities, except through ‘authorised’ or ‘official’ histories, has contributed to a complex and self-perpetuating mythology. Evoking two extreme narratives, the SAS unit are regarded either as the nation’s heroes, or as its villains.

In light of the allegations confronting the present-day SAS of egregious misconduct during its counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, there is a need to understand how the SAS has evolved its practice of elite counterinsurgency. According to veterans, the claims are the antithesis of the Dhofar operational record and the unit’s founding principles of humility and discipline. They fear that their ‘unblemished’ Dhofar legacy is now in jeopardy. This study will respond to the debate by piercing the SAS’s mythology to reappraise the elite unit’s record in Dhofar.

Authors: Brown, RH

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-bp4nogxnn
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Oman; elite; counterinsurgency; special forces; Special Air Service; Dhofar
• Subjects: Special Air Service; Military history, Modern; Oman--History--Dhofar War, 1964-1976; Special forces (Military science)